yes, you can buy early P4s now for a song. Mine (keyboard, monitor, box) cost $20 a couple of years ago. A pickup up-only from Trademe. Still, how many P4s does one need?

To me, one of my most valuable computers is my old 2001 Pentium 2 (or is it a P3?). Why? Because it can run both a 5.25 1.2MB and/or 360k drive, has USB ports, a "standard" parallel port and two standard serial ports and has a slot for an ISA card or two. In other words, it's a great "legacy" machine for bridging the gap between my modern PCs and my vintage PCs as far as disk-writing and file transfer is concerned. Modern computers are bristling with USB ports but that's about all.

Yeah my Compaq is like that. Has a 1.2 1.44 CD, USB ports, parallel, serial etc, damn handy and plays old games quite well! Although the riser card setup and the Plug'n Play but pre-pnp-os BIOS make it rather painful for testing cards.

I'm posting this on my new P4 This one is destined to be a WIndows domain server, just to make networking a tad easier with the old grunters.Pondered being more age authentic and going with Netware, but I don't know anything about Netware.

I have another P4 on media server duties, but definately wouldn't want any more!

P4 1.8 eh? I ran one as a gaming PC for many many years - I only retired it when I finally got with the modern age and built a Core 2 Duo setup. Good reliable processor, and doesn't run obscenely hot like the later P4s.

The early 2000s type machines can go on to live perfectly productive lives - as an example, the wife had a Compaq Presario S5020AN when we got together. Basic AthlonXP 2400+ machine. When she upgraded it got given all manner of odd jobs, but now it's settled into its permanent retirement role. It's jammed full of hard drives and some PCI drive controllers, and runs Windows Home Server. It's chocker full of movies and music. Perfect retirement, doesn't step out of line at all.

Thing is, these old ducks are in an awkward spot. They're bordering on not powerful enough for modern day-to-day tasks, but they're just outside the scope of even retro LAN parties. They're also the most traded in machines we get at work... I've easily got a dozen P4s kicking around that have been sent for scrap that haven't quite made it yet

Just the local Commodore hobo and middle-aged PC hoarder.eisa on Trademe. A lasting reminder of a Compaq fetish when I was younger.

Major milestones I guess. Uhm... major GPU revisions that set new standards, CPUs that dominated the market at the time (I have a working AthlonXP 3200+ SocketA setup...) and so on. I keep a few interesting machines around but for the most part they're the way they were when new - disassembled.

Just the local Commodore hobo and middle-aged PC hoarder.eisa on Trademe. A lasting reminder of a Compaq fetish when I was younger.

The other trouble for the future of vintage, is when modern parts fail they'll be almost impossible to repair without SMD gear.So if you do store one, make sure it's a quality item.

I recovered an AMD 3800+ from work, my mother is using it for internet/photos at the moment.Media box is a P4 2.8.Have a P4 3.0 HT proc around but no 775 boards anymore.

Core 2 Duo - a 45nm setup could be worth keeping, a dime a dozen CPU that can do 4-4.5Ghz with an aftermarket heatsink, mine ran daily for a year at 4.37Ghz, only got rid of it to upgrade to i7. On that note, Celeron 300A - the P2 450 in disguise was another modern-ish CPU I remember. Both chips made overclocking quite worth while.

Or possibly the P4 3.8 - the CPU known for basically being a volcano, before the Core architecture when Intel was desperate.

But so much of it seems to blur in together. Things just get faster but very little changes. I wonder what future generations of collectors would look back for, any generic P4 with AGP video, brand name, modified, special character? I wonder because I have no interest in P2's and P3's and only a tiny interest in P1's - but perhaps thats just me and the timeline I grew up in (although most of my life was on Pentium/Athlon)